I then turned the conversation on Thile, mentioning what the Prince recently said to me. Bucher still maintained that Thile is a gentleman and very good-hearted, and questioned whether he were as incapable as Bismarck had described him to me.
On the 26th of January, Bucher sent me the first and third volumes of Nippold’s edition of Bunsen’s biography, the proof sheets of a refutation by him of a letter from Prince Albert to Stockmar, explaining Bunsen’s “fall” (which was published first in the Münchener Nachrichten, and afterwards in the National Zeitung), and finally some rough notes for a Grenzboten article, which I prepared and published by the 2nd of February in No. 8, under the title “Bunsen’s Friends and the Truth.” Bucher’s refutation was to appear in the February number of the Deutsche Revue für das gesammte National-Leben der Gegenwart. In the rough notes he spoke as follows of Bunsen:—
“He took away with him copies of official documents, (just like Arnim), which his family published in a mutilated and therefore falsified shape. You may indeed without hesitation throw out the suggestion whether he did not perhaps take the originals. He did, as a matter of fact, take away at least three. This whole section of the book (i.e., of the biography, so far as it relates to Bunsen’s retirement) is a fable, written in despite of the author’s better knowledge. That the King afterwards wrote him a friendly letter, &c. is explained by the distinction which Frederick William IV. was in the habit of drawing between the official and the friend, as in the case of Radowitz. The Memorandum is a schoolboy’s exercise. Austria to extend her borders as far as the Sea of Azof, Poland to be restored—a terrible suggestion to be so coolly uttered—Prussia to get Austrian Silesia, one of the Provinces most devoted to the Imperial House, and Moravia!
“Vol. II. p. 557. His views concerning the proper preparatory education for the diplomatic service. That did not succeed in the case of Theodore (one of Bunsen’s sons). He must have achieved something out of the common at Lima and Alexandria, since after a short stay at these places he was on each occasion superseded, and had ultimately to resign. If he had had the preliminary training which he scoffed at, instead of a mere professorial education, he would probably not have been guilty of the follies and insubordination of the 1st and 4th of March 1854.
“You will find particulars as to the æsthetic International in the index at the end of the third volume. You are better versed in the religious type of humanity than I am. Every third word is God. Bunsen seems to have considered that the lieber Gott took quite a special interest in him.
“A bon mot which circulated in London: The learned regarded him as a diplomat while the diplomatists believed him to be a savant. The self-flattery in the account of the conversation with Clarendon, Part III. Bunsen and Pourtales certify to each other’s excellences. The source of Albert’s letter, Part III. page 356. Bunsen complains of his Government to Albert.
“A popular explanation of the political side of the book will doubtless be also necessary for the dull-witted Philistine. Prussia should involve herself in war with Russia, and what was to be the compensation? 1. That the English fleet should enter the Baltic. This would mean at least, that the Prussian coasts would be protected against the Russian fleet. 2. That the four Plenipotentiaries (of the Vienna Conference) should announce Prussia’s community of interest in the overthrow of Russian predominance. Much good that would have done us! How often has the integrity of Turkey been declared to be a European interest? And the idea of an Anglo-Prussian alliance (the Old Liberal dogma) which so frequently crops up in the book is equally absurd, and shows a complete ignorance of English policy, which never enters into permanent alliances without positive and limited aims. Part III. 201 and 207.”
On the 2nd of February I again called upon Bucher. He gave me various further particulars respecting the “great patriot and meritorious diplomatist,” Bunsen, and his sons. The old gentleman’s chief reason for tendering his resignation so hastily was that when about to take his holiday after the catastrophe, he was not paid his full salary as an envoy for six months, as he had demanded, but only for six weeks, as provided by the regulations. Theodore, whom Bunsen described to Thile as the most gifted of his sons, had made himself impossible at Lima, by his tactlessness in holding intercourse with the Opposition party, and using his influence on their behalf. He afterwards held the post of envoy at Stockholm, which he resigned when the Government refused him leave to marry a very wealthy German-Russian lady from the Baltic Provinces. He now enjoys possession of this lady. Another son has a fat benefice in England. “Frau Schwabe,” the “Elpi’s Melena” of the newspapers, who is frequently mentioned in the Nippold edition of the biography, is an enormously rich German Jewess, widow of a manufacturer, and a friend, not only of Bunsen, but also of Garibaldi, to whom she sent, after he was wounded at Aspromonte, an artistic armchair in “letter form,” that is to say, pasted all over with postage stamps. Bucher expects that George von Bunsen will reply to our articles. He, Bucher, will then write an answer from further official documents, for publication in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
On the 17th of February I left a proof of my Grenzboten article on Bunsen at the Imperial Chancellor’s palace for submission to the Prince. It was in an envelope and signed “Moritz Busch,” but was accompanied by no letter. I ascertained at the same time from the porter that the Chancellor had not been quite well for some time past. On my way back through the Leipzigerstrasse I met Bucher, who was delighted with “the fine goings-on in England now.” I asked what he meant, and he replied: “Why, the Standing Orders in Parliament, the Closure. Our people may well ask themselves whether they are equally pleased with this new feature in their ideal.”
The extracts from Taine, properly grouped and spiced with references to the German connections of the Jacobins, namely the Progressists, appeared in Nos. 7 and 9 of the Grenzboten under the title “The True Story of the Jacobins.” I also wrote an article on Gladstone’s measure referred to by Bucher. This was published in No. 10 of the Grenzboten under the title, “Gladstone, and Liberty of Speech in Parliament.”